On Monday evening, I attended the latest Digital Futures event at The Hospital Club in Covent Garden. Digital Futures is an invitation only network for senior-level professionals working in digital. Each month has a presentation on new technologies, innovation and thought leadership from big names in the industry. (If that sounds good to you, do contact Claudie for an invite.)

Monday’s presentation was by Greg Jarrett from Fuerte International – a mobile apps development company. Greg’s presentation entitled “It's All About Mobile” was enlightening, and I wanted to share some of my ideas and thoughts from the evening here.

Mobile (and Tablets) are growing fast

Greg showed a fascinating graph (which unfortunately I cannot find anywhere on the web) that showed exponential growth in the market penetration of smartphones (with tablet devices such as the iPad coming up fast) and slowing growth in the sale of laptop computers. According to the graph, desktops computers have practically disappeared by 2013!

Mobile internet browsing is also increasing with an average of 81 minutes more a day spent on mobile apps compared to browser based applications. I can see this trend in my own work as I use my Facebook and Linkedin apps on my iPhone more than I use them on my laptop.

Why is mobile growing so quick? Greg talked about convenience and boredom. We access apps and the web on our phones because we can and because it becomes a habit. We use our phones to make the most of those slivers of time between meetings, at events or on our commute.

iPhone still rules

Greg said that his clients are asking for both iPhone and Android apps to be developed but as yet the numbers don’t add up. In his experience 90% of the app downloads for their products still come from the Apple App Store. There are many reasons for this including iPhone market penetration but also that fact that Android apps are (apparently) not as easy to download. First rule of business: make it easy for your customers to buy!

Mobile apps are really expensive to develop

Greg showed us some examples of apps that they had developed with indicative costings and timeframes. The simplest app can cost anything between £9,750 and £26,650 depending on the level of functionality and will take a minimum of 8 weeks to develop. Compare this to website development which can be done for minimum cost these days and relatively quickly.

How does your website look in mobile?

It’s always a good idea to test your website on a number of smartphones and tablets to check the user experience. Review your Google Analytics data to see what mobiles and devices your customers are reading your website on.

Looking at my data I can see that Blackberry users find my site hard to read as the bounce rate is very high. Depending on how many people are accessing your site via mobile, it may be worth investing in a mobile version of your website. 

What are your thoughts on mobile? How can small businesses make the most of these opportunities without the costs?

PS: If you are interested in ways of developing simple, low cost apps and/or mobile websites for your business, do sign up to the 8fold newsletter, as I will be announcing a Mobile Toolkit workshop in November.